Sleuths of the Guwahati Zonal Office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted search operations on Wednesday (January 22, 2025) in a case relating to the alleged misappropriation of funds by officials of a defunct board that administered the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati.
The operations were conducted under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002.
A statement issued by the ED on Thursday said the investigation was based on a first information report registered by the Crime Investigation Department alleging that officials of the Kamakhya Debutter Board siphoned off ₹7.62 crore from 2003 to 2019. The board was subsequently dissolved.
The probe revealed that the former officials of the board transferred funds to their accounts through shell entities paid for supplying electrical goods, cement, cleaning chemicals, and other commodities apart from providing services.
“The officials mischievously resorted to splitting of bills to keep the value under ₹50,000 to be compliant of court direction forbidding expense of larger amounts without the permission of the Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup,” the statement said.
A Deputy Commissioner is now called a District Commissioner and the temple is in the Kamrup (Metropolitan) district.
The searches were conducted at the residential premises of the board’s former administrator Riju Prasad Sarma and deceased former members Dhiraj Sarma and Naba Kanta Sarma.
The searches led to the seizure of insurance policies worth ₹1.82 crore “taken out in the name of the officials of Kamakhya Debutter Board and their family members”. Apart from 27 bank accounts, documents related to immovable properties and businesses of the former board officials were also seized.
